FIRE EMBLEM:
Created By: Intelligent Systems
Release Date: 1990
Fire Emblem- Obscure to a Major Hit:
-Among the weirder stories in RPGs is the story of how
Fire Emblem went from a "Japan-Only" Tactical RPG infamous for being the hardest of the hard games, into a big hit in North America YEARS after its introduction thanks to some Game Boy Advance games and Marth, the hero of one game, showing up in the
Smash Bros. series. The games' gameplay, variety of iconic gameplay & character traits, and its romantic, anime art style, have made it a big hit.
Fire Emblem is a series where you play a Main Hero character/s and their allies, an army of fighters of various types- Knights, Swordsmen, Barbarians, Mages, etc. Many troops looks fairly generic (especially Knights), while Mages can be quite esoteric, and the game throws in some "iconic" unit types to ensure it stands out from any other Fantasy RPG- while
Shining Force (another Tactical RPG series) focuses on Centaurs,
Fire Emblem has the Pegasus Knights- female riders on Pegasi- as well as Wyvern Knights. Characters at early levels could "branch off" so they might be more healing-focused or a Pirate instead of a Barbarian-type. There's even a unique TYPE of character- the "Jeigan Character", named for a Knight that's uber-tier and way more powerful than anyone else when you get him... but you don't want to rely on him, because he peaks early and will end up being an albatross around your neck.
The game is infamous for a variety of things- you can kind of tell it's awesome because it's known for SO MUCH: Key among them is how "Nintendo Hard" the games are- if a character dies (and this will happen OFTEN), they are dead FOREVER and you lose that unit! This creates an infamous trend of players swearing out loud, turning off the game... then realizing they have nothing else to do and so they turn the game back on and restart the battle. There is also the "Support" system, where you have characters next to each other start communicating, creating mini-stories (some may learn they are each other's long-lost siblings; other characters fall in love)- things can escalate, with each character having one "A" support to show the full story. This ends up being a bit of a "Waifu Simulator" like a lot of Visual Novels, and ends up with character "Shipping Wars" breaking out over which matches are "ideal" (in the GBA game I played, Lyndis can be matched with either of the other Main Heroes, her "Bodyguard" Kent, or the badass Rath, who hails from her own country). So the Waifu thing is another infamous trait attached to the game.
There's also the "Weapon Triangle" system. Swords are superior to Axes, which are superior to Spears, which are superior to Swords- characters wielding one weapon will have an advantage to hit someone with the "weaker" gear. Magic works the same way- Light, Dark and Elemental Magic are in their own triangle. Pegasus Knights also have a weakness to Archers, making them their own little thing.
THE HISTORY OF FIRE EMBLEM:
-The first
Fire Emblem game came out for the Famicom (NES) in Japan in 1990, featuring Marth as the main character. Shouzou Kaga created the series, and would be instrumental to most of the games. Much of the series was established here, like losing a unit for good if they fell in battle.
Fire Emblem Gaiden came out in 1992 for the same system, introducing class evolution (being able to switch to new classes as you leveled up), keeping that throughout the series. It was less tactical than the predecessor, and here you had two main protagonists set up in opposing armies.
FE: Mystery of the Emblem hit the Super Famicom in 1994 and returned to the original Tactical RPG set-up.
FE: Geneology of the Holy War hit in 1996- this one added the Weapon and Magic Triangle aspects, as well as a generational aspect- you play characters in the first half than become the parents of the characters in the second half, with their stats informing those of their children.
Thracia 776, set on the same land as the previous game (as a side story of the second generation storyline), came out in 1999, WAY in the end of the Super Famicom's shelf life, and did comparatively poorly.
The next several games hit handheld systems instead of home consoles-
FE: The Binding Blade came out for the Game Boy Advance in 2002. The main hero, Roy, appeared in
Super Smash Bros. alongside the original hero Marth, leading to Western knowledge of the
Fire Emblem series. These appearances kind of led to the release of
Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade on the GBA in 2003. Oddly, this game was actually a PREQUEL to
Binding Blade, and you were playing the parents of the characters from the last one. Eliwood & Hector were old kings in that game, and here they are young, and you can find out which women are the mothers of the previous mains (the "Waifu Simulator" aspect). This one is the one I'll be building for this set, with notes on other Character Classes, at best- there's otherwise just too much to get into , here.
FE: The Sacred Stones came out in 2004, and seemed to do alright. It featured a pair of aquamarine-haired twin swordfighters and introduced "Beginner Classes" which could branch off into four potential end classes (a basic spear-wielder could turn into a Knight, Armored Knight, Mercenary or Swordfighter, for example).
FE: Path of Radiance hit the GameCube in 2005, changing things back to home consoles.
FE: Radiant Dawn is a direct sequel for the Wii (2007). A remake of the original game (
Shadow Dragon) hit the Wii U & Nintendo DS in 2008, and a remake of
Mystery of the Emblem hit in 2010.
FE: Awakening came out for the DS in 2012, and
Fire Emblem Fates came out for the 3DS in 2015- this game featured three potential plotlines focusing on different characters.
FE: Shadows of Valentia was a remake of the third game, hitting 3DS in 2017. The most recent game is
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Nintendo Switch, 2019), keeping the same concept as
Fates.
This game was INCREDIBLE- in a few ways it's a standard fantasy tale, but it builds itself remarkably well and the characters are fun.
You start off playing the katana-wielding Lyndis, a nobleman's granddaughter who was raised in Sacae (sorta like Japan)- she returns to her dying grandfather to take her birthright, while enemies befall her. She meets a small band of fighters in her "prelude" story, with a Knight, Armored Knight, Pegasus Knight, Swordsman, Archer, Healer, Mage, etc., so you get used to all the unit types. There's a pair of Knights, Kent & Sain, one of whom is noble and serious and the other is a womanizing goof-off (EVERY game apparently does this). Fiora, the Pegasus Knight, is terrified of men and ridiculously endearing, while also being super-close with Lyn (fans naturally ship all of this). The bad-ass Sacaean known as Rath joins as a different kind of unit- a horseback-riding Archer.
In the end, "Lyn" is joined by two additional "Lord" characters- the serious Eliwood and the brash, headstrong Hector. Eliwood fights using a rapier and Hector is a bad-ass god of war with a huge axe (he is almost always the best character overall). The characters are then joined by additional members of each class- I tended to stick with my originals, but slotted in a few of the newbies. There's also unique classes and characters popping up, like the monstrous, muscular axe-wielding Hawkeye, the pirate Dart, and more. There's a Mage you get way late in the game who can be the best one, but she starts out super low-level so you can choose whether or not to bother, too. Of particular importance are Nils and Ninian, a pair of unusual magical characters with great powers- they can do a dance that lets a character move a SECOND time- a truly wonderful attribute for a game like this, where you have to take turns. Naturally they have some great secrets.
The story really moves well- your Thief, Matthew, loses the love of his life to an Assassin, robbing us of a great character and really making my friend and I hate the Assassin, even though he reforms. An "Evil Queen"-type character launches her minions, many of whom have great designs, at your characters. A pair of elite warriors who oppose you are actually good, noble men, forced to do this by fealty to their lord (who is under mind control), and brings some tragedy when you're forced to kill them. Dragons are central to much of it, and Eliwood is clearly supposed to be with Ninian, and the plot changes based off of whether or not you had a full relationship with her- she transforms into a Dragon and he's forced to stop her, with the ending depending on you. Sadly, I actually didn't know that part when I started, haha.
You end up with 30+ potential party members, though they do that weird thing where they pile on like 10 of them in the final third or quarter of the game, meaning you never really feel for those characters as much as the ones you've been building up since the beginning. Though these have a meta-game purpose- people who don't Ragequit like I did when they lost their characters will probably need some of these guys to replace dead warriors.
I played
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, also for the GBA, but... it didn't grab me. The characters didn't feel as charming nor as epic, the game was almost too easy (you could level up in outside battles), and even the addition of "Rookie Classes" (where you could start off a character as a true weakling who could become one of two classes, which would then branch off into two more). I never ended up finishing it, and I don't think it did terribly well... but subsequent
FE games have gone on to become huge hits, appearing frequently in memes and fanart.
Three Houses seems to have been a big deal, in particular.
Sales fell a bit during the 2000s, but
Fire Emblem: Awakening hit in 2012 and re-energized the series.
Three Houses, the latest game in the series (2019) is actually its best-selling game, probably ensuring its future.
